CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
III. Purpose of Studies
1. To understand the Education Business and English Language School field in Vietnam.
2. To evaluate Marketing strategy for Education Business and English Language Schools.
3. To offer suggestions for English Schools.
4. To manage an English school or an Education Business in the future.
10 IV. Research Procedure
With the research topic ‘A study of Marketing Strategy for Education Business – The case of Shane English Vietnam’, Research methods to be used are: observation method, survey/
interview methods, qualitative analysis, and the comparison method. The research procedure included 6 steps as follows:
# Step 1: Introduction: Clarify the research background, research motivations, research objectives, and the research procedure.
# Step 2: Literature Review: Briefs of English Language schools in Vietnam, review of Marketing Strategy and SWOT, and Resource Based-view.
# Step 3: Research Methods: Describe the research methodology of the case study
# Step 4: Major of Findings: Introductions of Shane English Vietnam; SWOT, Resource Based-view, and Marketing Strategy at Shane English Vietnam currently.
# Step 5: Conclusion and further studies: Finding marketing methods for the education sector, practical implements, limitations of the research, and further research expectations.
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Figure 1.5: Research Procedure
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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
I. English Language School
An English language school is a place where one studies the English language. Students vary widely by age, educational background, and work experience. Further, at language school, students usually select a specific course according to their language proficiency. According to the CEFR, six language levels define students' language proficiency base on their speaking, writing, and reading skills such as Beginner, Elementary, Pre-intermediate, Intermediate, Upper-intermediate, and Advanced. Students will be then arranged at the course that matches their skills.
An English school consists of 5 following components:
1) Structure
As a general rule, a new student is evaluated by a placement test which enables teachers to determine which is the most appropriate level for the student. Courses can be organized in groups or for individuals according to students’ demands.
2) Organization
Most language schools are private and for-profit organizations. Tuition fees vary depending on a multitude of factors such as local cost of living, exchange rates, and demand for the language in the area where a school is located. Language schools can be either independent entities or corporate franchises.
3) Teachers
Teachers are either English native speakers or formal qualifications to become a language teacher, however, they vary by school or country. Teachers may have graduated with a B.A, Master's degree, or a Ph.D. Pedagogy. Experience and strong
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teaching skills are the priority criteria during the recruitment of the language school's teachers.
4) Qualifications
Students in each course and at each level need to sit in the internal exam before moving up to the level. Besides, most students will sit an international language exam and receive an internationally recognized qualification. That could help students in national students such as to get exemption of English Entry test at Primary, Secondary, High Schools, and Universities. An International English certificate is an advantage or priority of entry requirements at the works. Additionally, a certificate of English is a condition that is not able to be missed for any applying for studies abroad, …
5) International language exams
English Language schools commonly offer specific programs to those wishing to prepare for internationally recognized language exams such as:
TOEIC: Test of English for International Communication
TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language
IELTS: International English Language Testing System
Cambridge English Language Assessment
II. Marketing Theories – The Marketing Mix
1. Marketing Definitions
Currently, there are thousands of marketing definitions. However, these definitions are not really different, and, interestingly, none of them are considered to be unique. This is due to the face the authors of the marketing definitions have their views. Some definitions of typical organizations and individuals may be given:
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- According to the American Marketing Association (AMA): "Marketing is the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers." (Approved 1935). And: "Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large"
(Approved 2017).
- The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM): "The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably".
- Philip Kotler’s definition of Marketing is – “Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with other”.
- ‘Marketing is engaging customers and managing profitable customer relationships. The twofold goal of marketing is to attract new customers by promising superior value and to keep and grow current customers by delivering satisfaction’. (Armstrong 32)
- In the words of Cundiff and Still – “Marketing is the term used to describe collectively those business functions most directly concerned with the demand stimulating and demand-fulfilling activities of the business enterprise”.
Thus, we can say, Marketing is selling what the market needs, not selling what we have.
2. Marketing strategy
A strategy is the overall decisions and actions related to the selection of facilities and the allocation of resources to achieve a certain goal. Strategy can also be defined through a variety of factors such as tasks, selection of areas of activity, complementarity of resources, operational and tactical options, priorities. and prepare for unexpected situations to complete the set tasks.
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There are three levels of strategy: Company-level strategy, business unit-level strategy, and functional strategy. Marketing strategy is a functional strategy. Marketing strategy is a logical point system, reasonable, as a basis for directing an organizational unit, calculating how to solve your Marketing tasks. It includes specific strategies for target markets, for the Marketing complex and marketing costs.
3. Marketing Mix – 7Ps
The marketing mix –referred to as the 4Ps of Product, Price, Place, and Promotion – was originally proposed by Jerome McCarthy (1960). It is still used as an essential part of formulating and implementing marketing strategy by many practitioners. The popularity of the mix as a guide for the application of marketing techniques is driven by the apparent simplicity of the framework. However, in the 1980s the 4Ps were challenged for not referencing the importance of customer service. The result was that the mix was extended to 7Ps, which include three further elements (the service mix) that better reflect service delivery: People, Process and Physical evidence (Booms and Bitner, 1981). Some writers argue that the service mix should be subsumed within the 4Ps. Since the 1990s there have been more changes in marketing thinking and research and the outcome has been a shift in emphasis in the application of the marketing mix towards the development of relationship building. Some writers even argue that this is a paradigm shift altering the underlying marketing philosophy guiding the application of marketing tools and concepts (Berry, 2008). Whereas others suggest the move to more relationship-orientated marketing is in response to growing customer demands and increasingly complex technology-driven trading environments (Singh et al., 2011) (Singh, Agrariya and Deepali, 2011).
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Figure 2.1: Marketing Mix Matrix – 7Ps (1) Product:
According to Hollensen (2014), Products, or services, are the vital ingredients of the market offering and are the vehicles for providing customer satisfaction.
Thus, we can understand a product is built or manufactured to meet the needs of a certain group of people. Products in 7Ps marketing may be intangible or intangible because they may be in the form of services or goods. Make sure that the products designed and manufactured meet the needs and keep up with the consumer trends of the market targeting. Therefore, during the product development phase, marketers must conduct a series of extensive research on the product life cycle they are creating.
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Figure 2.2: Product Life Cycle
(Source: Marketing Management Textbook, Hollensen (2014)
In developing the right product, we have to answer the following questions:
What does the customer want from the service or product? How will the customer use it? Where will the client use it? What’s the name of the product?
How is your product/service different from the products of your competitors?
(2) Price:
Hollensen (2014) mentioned: Pricing is the only element of the marketing mix to generate revenue. However, price affects not only the profit through its impact on revenue, it also affects the quantity sold through its influence on demand.
The price of a product is simply understand is the amount that customers have to pay to use it. Adjusting the price of products will have a major impact on the overall marketing strategy. At the same time, it also greatly affects the sales and demand of the product. If the company is new to the market and has not made a name for itself, the target customers will not be willing to pay a high price.
While they may be willing to pay a large sum in the future, it will be difficult to do so at the start-up stage.
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Price considers cheaper prices of cooperatives products compared to other shops, Discount, Credit purchase, Adoption of commodities‟ prices to members‟ expectations, Purchase by installments. Market penetration pricing, Market skimming pricing, Neutral pricing are the three major pricing strategies, and these are the important questions that people should ask themself when they are setting the product price: What will be the quantity demanded at any given price? What will the effect of changes in price be on sales volume? How much did it cost you to make the product? What is the customers’ perceived product value? Do you think that a slight price decrease could significantly increase your market share? Can the current price of the product compete with the price of the product’s competitors?
(3) Place
A place or distribution channel - an important part of the marketing mix definition. You must locate and distribute the product where it is easy to reach the potential goal. This often requires a deep understanding of the market. From there, you will find distribution channels that can connect directly with your target customers. Intensive distribution, Exclusive distribution, Selective distribution, Franchising are considered as distribution strategies
The questions should be made in order to develop the distribution strategy:
Where do your clients look for your service or product? Do they shop in a mall, in the supermarket, or online? How do you access the different distribution channels? Do you need a strong sales force? Do you need to attend trade fairs?
Do you need to sell online?
(4) Promotion
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Promotion is a very important component of marketing because it can improve brand awareness and sales. Promotion is comprised of various parts such as Sales Organization, Public Relations, Advertising and Sales Promotion
In creating an effective product promotion strategy, you need to answer the following questions: How can you send marketing messages to your potential clients? When is the best time to promote your product/service? Will you reach your potential clients through television ads? Is it best to use social media in promoting the product/ service? What is the promotion strategies of your competitors?
(5) People
People include both the target market and people directly related to the business.
For people, thorough research is important to find out if enough people in your target market are in demand for certain types of products & services. or not.
Employees of the company are very important in marketing. They are service providers.
(6) Process
The process of marketing 7P is one of the important elements of marketing.
System and organizational process affecting service deployment. So make sure you have a suitable process to minimize costs. Minimizing here can be your entire sales channel, payment system, …
(7) Physical Evidence
Because the characteristic of the service industry is that the business abstraction needs "tangible" evidence to make it easier for customers to visualize the services provided. Also, physical evidence in 7p marketing is related to the branding of businesses and their products are perceived in the market. It is
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physical evidence of the presence and establishment of a business. One concept of this is branding.
4. Digital Marketing Mix
‘The use of the Internet and other digital media and technology to support ‘modern marketing’ has given rise to a bewildering range of labels and jargon created by both academics and professionals. It has been called digital marketing, Internet marketing, e-marketing and web e-marketing’ (Chaffey & Chadwick, 2016). In other words, ‘Evaluating the opportunities provided by the Internet for varying the marketing mix is a useful framework for assessing current and future digital marketing strategy’. (Chaffey &
Chadwick, 2016, p. 293).
Digital marketing affects all aspects of the traditional and service marketing mix:
Table 2.1: Elements of Digital Marketing Mix
(textbook: Digital Marketing - Strategy, Implementation and Practice)
(1) Product:
The product variable of the marketing mix refers to the characteristics of a product, service, or brand. With the popularity of YouTubers rapidly increasing, companies are now paying them to sponsor their products by making unboxing videos. On the
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website, you can make your product stand out by using indicative imagery. The main implications of the Internet for the product element of the digital marketing mix are 1.
options for varying the core product; 2. options for offering digital products; 3.
options for changing the extended product; 4. conducting research online; 5. speed of new product development; 6. speed of new product diffusion (Chaffey & Chadwick, 2016, p. 256).
(2) Price:
Focussing on the implications for setting prices in digital markets; new pricing models and strategies. The Internet leads to price transparency and commoditization and hence lower prices. Dynamic pricing gives the ability to test prices or to offer differential pricing for different segments or in response to variations in demand (Chaffey & Chadwick, 2016, p. 293). New pricing models such as auctions are available. There are many pricing strategies you can implement on your website, which will make your products stand out to your customers: Discount codes, Online vouchers, Price cutting, Packages and bundles,…These techniques have worked very successfully on websites in the past. The main implications of the Internet for the price aspect of the Digital Marketing mix are:1. increased price transparency and its implications on differential pricing (a supplier can use the technology for differential pricing); 2. downward pressure on price (including Precision, Adaptability, Segmentation, Cost-plus pricing, Target-profit pricing, Competition-based pricing, Market-orientated pricing. Premium pricing Penetration pricing); 3. new pricing approaches (including dynamic pricing, price testing, and auctions); 4. alternative pricing structure or policies (basic price; discounts; add-ons and extra products and services; guarantees and warranties; refund policies; order cancellation terms).
(Chaffey & Chadwick, 2016, p. 268)
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Figure 2.3: Alternative Pricing Mechanisms
(Textbook: Digital Marketing - Strategy, Implementation and Practice)
(3) Place:
Refers to the place of purchase and channel structure on the Internet. There are three main locations for e-commerce transactions: seller site, buyer site and intermediary (Chaffey & Chadwick, 2016, p. 293). Electronic partnerships can be used to deliver the entire marketing mix, which includes: advertising through Paid Search networks (e.g. Google AdWords); promoting services through feeds on price comparison search engines (e.g. Kelkoo or Google Product Search); promoting services through affiliate networks (e.g. Commission Junction) or advertising networks (e.g. Google AdSense publishers programme); procuring expertise for short-term digital marketing work through an online web skills marketplace such as Elance (www.elance.com), Guru.com (www.guru.com), Scriptlance (www.scriptlance.com)
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or oDesk (www.oDesk.com); use of secure payment system services such as Paypal or Google Checkout;analysis of web performance through online web analytics services (e.g. Google Analytics) (Chaffey & Chadwick, 2016, p. 283).
(4) Promotion:
The promotion element of the digital marketing mix is reviewing new ways of applying each of the elements of the communications mix – such as advertising, sales promotions, PR and direct marketing; assessing how the Internet can be used at different stages of the buying process; using promotional tools to assist in different stages of customer relationship management from customer acquisition to retention (Chaffey & Chadwick, 2016, p. 284). In a web context this includes gaining initial visitors to the site and gaining repeat visits through these types of communications techniques:
Table 2.2: The main element of Promotional Mix
(textbook: Digital Marketing - Strategy, Implementation and Practice)
(5) People:
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The People variable of the marketing mix relates to how an organisation’s staff interacts with customers and other stakeholders during sales and pre- and post-sales communications with them. To manage service and quality, organisations must devise plans to accommodate the five stages shown in the figure below:
- Stage 1: Customer defines support query - Stage 2: Receipt of email and acknowledgment - Stage 3: Routeing of email
- Stage 4: Compose a response - Stage 5: Follow-up
(6) Process
The Process variable of the digital marketing mix refers to the methods and procedures companies use to achieve all marketing functions – such as new product development, promotion, sales and customer service. Customer contact strategies for
Figure 2.4: Stage in Managing inbound email
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integrating web and email support into existing contact centre operations usually incorporate elements of both of the following options: Customer-preferred channel.
School -preferred channel, Delivering customer services and assisted sales (Chaffey
& Chadwick, 2016, p. 288).
(7) Physical evidence
The Physical evidence variable of the marketing mix refers to the tangible expression of a product and how it is purchased and used. In an online context, ‘physical evidence’ refers to the customer’s experience of the company through the website. It includes issues likely site ease of use or navigation, availability, and performance.
III. SWOT Analysis and Resource-Based View Analysis
1. SWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis model is thought to have been developed by Albert Humphrey in the 1960s and 1970s. This is the result of a research project conducted by Stanford University, USA. This project uses data from the 500 largest companies in the United States (Fortune 500). To find the cause of failure in the planning of these businesses.
Initially, this analysis model was called SOFT, which stands for Satisfactory - Good in the present, Opportunity (Opportunity) - Good in the future, Fault (Fault) - Bad thing in the present in; Threat - The bad thing in the future. However, until 1964, after the model was introduced to Urick and Orr in Zurich Switzerland, Albert and his colleagues changed F (Fault) to W (Weakness) and SWOT was born. In 1973, SWOT was used at J W French Ltd and developed from here. In early 2004, SWOT was finalized and demonstrated the ability to effectively set and unify organizational goals without relying on advice or other costly resources.
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Figure 2.5: SWOT Framework
Strengths
The strength of a business is often internal factors that can help it grow and build its advantage against competitors in the market. These factors can be controlled by the enterprise: What process can businesses be applying to help them become successful? What are the strong points of the people that your business has, such as professional skills, relationships, education, job skills, reputation..? What are the strengths of material and assets that the business owns, such as customer files, facilities, finance, technology, patents, etc.? What are your competitive advantages compared to competitors in the market? Also, marketers need to think about the opponent. Take an example; if all other competitors provide high-quality products, even if you have a good product, it is not necessarily your advantage.
27 Weaknesses
Weaknesses focus on people, resources, systems, and procedures. The simple explanation is that Weaknesses are weak points of an enterprise, which are weak points compared to competitors. Factors that do not exist in strengths will certainly appear certain weaknesses.
List out the things that still exist according to the most objective assessment with questions
List out the things that still exist according to the most objective assessment with questions